If you won two free plane tickets, where would you go?

I didn’t get free plane tickets. I did find a good fare on United Airlines from the Big Island to Barcelona. I told some friends and we jumped on this deal. I’m so excited for my first trip to Europe!

Our journey takes us from ITO-HNL on Hawaiian Airlines. The rest of the legs are all on United Airlines. We go from HNL-LAX, then LAX to Newark, and then Newark to Barcelona. OR SO I THOUGHT!!!

United canceled our HNL-LAX flight 2 hours before we leave from Hilo! After an incredibly long phone call with a United agent, we got rebooked on Air Canada to Vancouver and then on Lufthansa to Frankfurt and then to Barcelona. We arrive in Barcelona just a few hours later than our original itinerary. I hope this is the one and only hiccup on this adventure.

We did get a food voucher of $15 from United Airlines but it didn’t get to us in time for us to buy anything. All the shops and restaurants were closed. The voucher could not be used in Vancouver.

Boarded Air Canada to take us from Honolulu to Vancouver. The seat I got was in the absolute last row of the plane. At least I got the window seat so could lean against the wall for this 6 hour flight.

In Vancouver, we had about 5 hours to fill. We visited two lounges. Got some free food and drinks. Charged up our devices. Walked around the very beautiful airport and enjoyed the views of the mountains.

When it was finally time for us to board our Lufthansa flight to Frankfurt, we were happy to get on in a boarding group early enough to have lots of space to stow our carry on luggage.

In Frankfurt, we had less than one hour to get to our next gate. This trek required us to catch a shuttle bus to get through immigration and then board a bus to get to another terminal. We made it! We even tried getting on a direct flight to Bilbao but we just didn’t have enough time to make the change so we took to our original connection taking us from Frankfurt to Barcelona.

We got to Barcelona and had time to visit the airport lounge and relaxed with some cheese, meats, and tapas. Boarded Vueling Airlines to get us on our one-hour flight to Bilbao.

Because our journey had so many legs plus some train rides in Spain, we had planned to travel with just carryon luggage. I packed a few tops and pants. And one pair of walking shoes. This is the lightest traveling I’ve ever done. Thank goodness we planned on carryons since we had these issues with our flights! It made things so much easier to make changes on the fly.

I also made sure have my universal charger. I picked up an antitheft crossbody pouch. Got some Euros. I have an international phone plan. Practiced some introductory Spanish on Duolingo. I’m as ready as I’ll ever be.

Follow along! Living Hilo Style in Spain!